NASA Asks For Moon To Earth Delivery Ideas

NASA has issued a "Request for Information" asking private companies for ideas on delivering mined materials from the moon to the Earth.

The issued ‘Request for Information’ read, “NASA has identified a variety of exploration, science, and technology demonstration objectives that could be addressed by sending instruments, experiments, or other payloads to the lunar surface. To address these objectives as cost-effectively as possible, NASA may procure payloads and related commercial payload delivery services to the Moon.”

Devoid of any technical specifications, the request for information stayed ambiguous about the exact purpose. NASA definitely wants to pep-up its space exploration game as early as in the year 2018...

Oh, I think NASA could be pepped-up, all right. But why not ask science fiction writers?

Sure, catapults are mostly vacuum; stator rings aren't even close together at ejection end. But Authority's 3-g catapult was almost one hundred kilometers long. It was not only an astrogation landmark, on every Luna-jump chart, but was so big it could be photographed or seen by eye from Terra with not-large telescope. It showed up beautifully on a radar screen.
(Read more about Heinlein's mass-driver catapult from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress)